Who you got for the NBA title this year?

[dstraate]

I'm just being optimistic with my Bulls out and my deep seeded hatred for Miami. I watched Kwahi Lenord several times for SDSU and really liked his demeanor and play. I'm calling the Spurs for another championship and Lebron waits another year. What say you?

[tiger8mush]

i'm rooting for whomever comes out of the Western Division. OKC/SA are more likable teams to me than MIA/BOS. Duncan & Parker have been great a long time together. Hard to imagine they both won a championship w/David Robinson which seems like many moons ago haha.

[ScottR81]

Since my bulls are gone, going with OKC to take it all.

[barrysloate]

Would love to see Oklahoma City win...but if I'm betting it looks like San Antonio is the favorite, despite a pair of recent losses. I don't think Miami will win without a healthy Chris Bosh.

[TUM301]

The Celts !!!!!

[alanu]

I'm a Nuggets fan so I'm rooting for a team from the west, would prefer the Spurs, but like OKC too... but really anybody but the Heat... or Lakers, luckily they are already out.

[Touch'EmAll]

I just hope the West wins all the marbles. I have a hard time liking the Heat, and the Celtics are our worst enemy.

My Lakers unfortunately are out. Their defense is championship caliber. But they need to run the pick and roll - forget this "triangle" nonsense. They just stand around too much offensively, and then Kobe hoists up a high degree of difficulty ballet shot and ends up shooting just about his worst FG % of his career.

[benderbroeth]

OKC is for me!!!!

spurs are ok too

[dherm360]

Miami, Bosh comes back tomorrow then in finals beats OKC in 7

[barrysloate]

There goes my prediction for the Spurs. Funny how a team can follow a 20 game winning streak with a critical four game losing streak. I would pick Oklahoma City as slight favorites, regardless of who they play.

[tiger8mush]

lets go OKC!

[dstraate]

That Thunder team is a hot mess on the offensive side. I wouldn't want to guard them if Westbrook is shooting well. Unless I was on Perkins

[SetBuilder]

I live in Miami so I have to like the Heat.

They're going to win it all.

[barrysloate]

The Heat really kicked it up a notch in their last two games. The finals should be a track meet.

[benderbroeth]

game one goes to seattle!!!

go OKC!!!!

[Brendan]

Miami is going to win it, no question. (even with the game 1 loss) The NBA needs LeBron to win a title. They also need a team in an actual city to win it. The Mavericks winning it last year was stretching it. No way in hell will Stern let Oklahoma win it this year.

[barrysloate]

How will David Stern prevent Oklahoma from winning? Will he ask them to take a dive?

[tiger8mush]

There is chatter that Stern talks to the refs before the games on how he wants the game to be referee'd, without explicitly saying "I want team xyz to win".

So lets pretend OKC was winning largely due to pick & rolls. Maybe Stern would tell the refs pre-game something like "lets make sure there are no moving screens". Sure, technically they are moving screens but EVERY team does it and doesn't get called for it. So its a way Stern could manipulate the outcome of the game.

I guess the former referee that was fired for fixing games said that Stern says stuff like this before the games to the referees.

[barrysloate]

You can speak to the referees about how you want the game called, but if OKC plays better and scores more points, not much you can do about that.

[Brendan]

The same thing happens every year. It's not a coincidence.

Referees make no difference?
"Donaghy began gambling on NBA games while employed as a referee in 2003. Between that time and the end of the 2006-07 season, Donaghy and his accomplices bet on approximately 40 games a season with an incredibly high success rate (some estimates figure they were correct over 80% of the time)."
80% success rate? If that's what one referee can do, what success rate do you think all the referees could get? 90%?

How come home teams win so often in the NBA? More games won at home mean happier fans. Happier fans means more revenue. There's more to it than just playing at your home court.

No way he's lying to the feds:


But it wasn’t until Donahgy was in federal custody that things really got interesting. In order to save himself some prison time, Donaghy began singing like a canary to the feds. NBA Commission David Stern would repeated berate the point that no one should believe Donaghy’s claims as he was simply saying things to potentially lower his sentence. Stern said that Donaghy had no credibility.

This brings up two important points. Number one: Donaghy was indeed trying to spend as little time in jail as possible. Who wouldn’t? But he could not, and even dare not, make up stories to tell the feds to do this. With the federal conviction rate running at about 95%, any such lies are going to be ferreted out and extra time added to the resultant sentence. A rational person does not lie when in federal custody.

What Donaghy was doing was not any different than what happens when mafia figures are arrested by the feds. Often, they rat out their former compatriots to save themselves. The FBI does not look down upon, or disbelieve, these stories. No, what they are told leads to further investigations and hopefully, further arrests. It’s standard operating procedure. So Donaghy’s behavior was quite typical for one involved in such a situation.

Point number two: Commissioner Stern knocking Donaghy’s credibility. This is laughable to say the least. It was the NBA that hired Donaghy despite numerous background checks. It was the NBA that let Donaghy officiate their highly sought after playoff games, even though they continually monitored his on- and off-the-court actions. It was the NBA that employed Donaghy for 13 years - and potentially more had the FBI not arrested him. It is the NBA that has an entire security division employed to monitor players, team officials, and referees in an attempt to stem any such criminal behavior. Yet the NBA did not catch Donaghy. In fact, his arrest came as a shock to the league. So who is lacking more credibility? Donaghy, or the league that employed – and would’ve continued to employ – him?

Before you answer that question, consider what Donaghy ultimately told the feds: That the NBA routinely instructed its referees to alter the outcomes of its games. Or, to put it more simply, the NBA is fixed.